Goblins XVIII: Being yourself can be dangerous

[Vinyadan]

Minmax is slow. Just because he hasn't expressed regret yet doesn't mean he won't get there.

The question here, I think, is whether the comic remembers that that's a necessity. MM changed his general opinion of monsters after getting along with Kin. The comic might forget that it also needs to come to terms with past acts, because, by now, he's a swell guy.

No way to tell before it's over, I guess.

[Traab]

The question here, I think, is whether the comic remembers that that's a necessity. MM changed his general opinion of monsters after getting along with Kin. The comic might forget that it also needs to come to terms with past acts, because, by now, he's a swell guy.

No way to tell before it's over, I guess.

Since the necklace got erased from history, would that also effect his own outlook? Kin no longer remembers why she likes him so much, that gift being an incredibly touching moment for her. But now it never happened and thats changing their interactions. Since he no longer gave her such a gift and experienced her reaction to it...

[Lizard Lord]

Since the necklace got erased from history, would that also effect his own outlook? Kin no longer remembers why she likes him so much, that gift being an incredibly touching moment for her. But now it never happened and thats changing their interactions. Since he no longer gave her such a gift and experienced her reaction to it...

Minmax never actually understood why even with the necklace (because, as has been mentioned, he is slow).

And I still don't get why the necklace in particular anyways. He still threw a birthday party for her right? He still gave a clear and genuine effort to treat and see her as a person against what he had previously believed?

[Anteros]

Minmax never actually understood why even with the necklace (because, as has been mentioned, he is slow).

And I still don't get why the necklace in particular anyways. He still threw a birthday party for her right? He still gave a clear and genuine effort to treat and see her as a person against what he had previously believed?

Maybe she's just incredibly shallow?

[DaFlipp]

Speaking of the necklace (and apologies if this observation's been made before), but I had a thought about it the other day. Unless the already-established rules for how those oblivion-holes work are altered somehow, there's really no satisfying way for the necklace-destroying alt-Kin to get her comeuppance. After all, from her perspective now, she never threw away any necklace, so there's no way for her to give away her guilt, and no way for her to feel bad even if someone accused her of it.

Just... kind of messed up (in an interesting way, not an "oh god why" way, which I know is an important distinction in a comic like Goblins).

[Anteros]

Speaking of the necklace (and apologies if this observation's been made before), but I had a thought about it the other day. Unless the already-established rules for how those oblivion-holes work are altered somehow, there's really no satisfying way for the necklace-destroying alt-Kin to get her comeuppance. After all, from her perspective now, she never threw away any necklace, so there's no way for her to give away her guilt, and no way for her to feel bad even if someone accused her of it.

Just... kind of messed up (in an interesting way, not an "oh god why" way, which I know is an important distinction in a comic like Goblins).

Well, Forgath had his memory of his beard returned by touching those gears, and both Kins presumably spent a lot of time messing with them. It's not impossible that one of them figured it out.

If you want to think of something messed up, consider that Kin has spent the last indeterminate amount of time murdering various versions of Forgath and Minmax for xp. True love at its finest.

[Anarchic Fox]

I think the comic's tonal inconsistency goes along with its moral inconsistency. The comic can't consistently decry Minmax's kills, or treat them the same as others' kills, because then the comic would lose half its comic relief.

And I think the comic's tonal inconsistency is a good thing, given the comic's other flaws. With a consistent tone, it would always be suffering and remorse, and there's too much of that already. With an inconsistent tone, an invested reader can filter out the horrid bits, much like you can do with Sluggy Freelance or Schlock Mercenary.

Moral consistency is a good thing to have in a story... but not in this story.

[Vinyadan]

About the necklace, it apparently was highly unusual for her. "The most wonderful thing" anyone had done for her. Which honestly makes you wonder how it is to live with the serpentfolk, because it doesn't sound good at all. But it was bigger than the party itself, that's for certain.

So, at the end of the Maze of Many, Kin found herself dealing with a difficult decision and without the main piece to justify choosing Minmax over the Kins. Minmax had saved her life, but so had the Kins, after all. And, without the necklace, there really wasn't anything to make Minmax stand out.

Then Minmax gloriously screwed up. I never wondered if there having been no necklace somehow conditioned his decision to grab the leash (the author might never have, either). But it would make sense. He wouldn't know what makes Kin tick anymore. Kin loved to have her personhood recognised through an object thait said "This is Kin, and nothing else" (about MM using writing as a means of identification, compare the "I am Great" buckle, maybe influenced by Forgath's "This is a helmet"). Instead, Minmax now deals with her dissent by grabbing her leash and annihilating her agency and personhood.

[Cygnia]

Have they ever mentioned why that collar can't be taken off? You'd think one of the other Kins would have done so...

[The Glyphstone]

IIRC she thinks it'll explode or something?

[BaronOfHell]

Speaking of the necklace (and apologies if this observation's been made before), but I had a thought about it the other day. Unless the already-established rules for how those oblivion-holes work are altered somehow, there's really no satisfying way for the necklace-destroying alt-Kin to get her comeuppance. After all, from her perspective now, she never threw away any necklace, so there's no way for her to give away her guilt, and no way for her to feel bad even if someone accused her of it.

Just... kind of messed up (in an interesting way, not an "oh god why" way, which I know is an important distinction in a comic like Goblins).

Even if that for some reason happens to be true, Ruby is still the person who would do such a thing. As such, without something changing her perception, I wouldn't be surprised if she'd clash philosophically with our Kin eventually anyway.

About the collar exploding, didn't Forgath say he could remove it once he got remove curse? If so, I guess none of the Kin's ever got that?

[Traab]

Have they ever mentioned why that collar can't be taken off? You'd think one of the other Kins would have done so...

Its a cursed object, if its removed by anything other than the key, or a remove curse spell, it explodes I think. Something along those lines. Im pretty sure forgath was racking up promises for future uses of remove curse when he reached the level long before he bumped into the bunny dwarf and her amazing self punching what machine. As for one of the others removing it, you would think so, but maybe they dont have that spell on their books? We dont even know for sure how long she has been there or what level she has hit. Though she is probably 5 since she cast lightning and is probably not going to be some overpowered character that reached level 9+ and has ridiculous abilities to work with. Considering the other changes they can make to reality with the device psymax built, removing the collar should have also been doable that way. But meh.

[Kish]

Kin said it was cursed and unremovable. Forgath offered to Remove Curse it. Kin said that it had a 50% chance of blowing up if someone cast Remove Curse on it. Forgath dropped the subject and so did Ellipsis.

I kind of think "so you're planning on just wearing a collar which anyone who grabs can use to control you, forever?" was the elephant in the room, but it is yet unacknowledged as such.

[Vinyadan]

Right, about that... if she is a wizard or a sorcerer, as her spell and familiar would suggest, identify is a lvl 1 spell. In 3.5, unless the collar is an artifact, she should know its workings by now. But I'm not sure of what edition they are in, and, apparently, identify was less powerful in 3.0.

[BaronOfHell]

Normally I'd say no way Goblinslayer could have gotten his hand on such a powerful item, which also just happens to satisfy his needs, but in this universe I guess anything is possible when it comes to items.

Heck maybe it is even very difficult to identify, except Goblinslayer also happened to come across an item which conveniently happened to be able to do so as well.

Though I do agree in that I can't see why it couldn't be removed using the gears, or maybe she has managed to change it using the gears, so now it is only a reminder, similar what GS did to Thaco? Though I don't know why she'd keep it as a reminder, but I have no experience with the psychology behind it, so I can't really object either if that is the case.

[Vinyadan]

Now that I think about it, there also is that magical wall that identifies items, if it wasn't destroyed in the lolpearl explosion.

EDIT: And Vorpal's staff. https://www.goblinscomic.com/comic/page-19

[Neoriceisgood]

Normally I'd say no way Goblinslayer could have gotten his hand on such a powerful item, which also just happens to satisfy his needs, but in this universe I guess anything is possible when it comes to items.

Heck maybe it is even very difficult to identify, except Goblinslayer also happened to come across an item which conveniently happened to be able to do so as well.

Though I do agree in that I can't see why it couldn't be removed using the gears, or maybe she has managed to change it using the gears, so now it is only a reminder, similar what GS did to Thaco? Though I don't know why she'd keep it as a reminder, but I have no experience with the psychology behind it, so I can't really object either if that is the case.

I feel this universe is quite generous in dispensing terrible trauma-inducing items honestly.

[Gez]

Kin said it was cursed and unremovable. Forgath offered to Remove Curse it. Kin said that it had a 50% chance of blowing up if someone cast Remove Curse on it. Forgath dropped the subject and so did Ellipsis.

I kind of think "so you're planning on just wearing a collar which anyone who grabs can use to control you, forever?" was the elephant in the room, but it is yet unacknowledged as such.

She was planning on doing some research to try to find out if the "50% chance to explode" thing was true first (see her last panel here).

[Fyraltari]

Normally I'd say no way Goblinslayer could have gotten his hand on such a powerful item, which also just happens to satisfy his needs, but in this universe I guess anything is possible when it comes to items.

Maybe the oracular face in Brassmoon's wall gave a straight answer for once.

[Vinyadan]

New page. https://www.goblinscomic.com/comic/page-16-2021

Forgive me if all I could think was "that's a hell of a spurt on the wall".

[Nettlekid]

She was planning on doing some research to try to find out if the "50% chance to explode" thing was true first (see her last panel here).

My theory was that the reason the group had such an astronomically high number of deaths in the Maze of Many was that they repeatedly tried removing the collar.

[remetagross]

New comic is up! It's neato.

Spoiler: SPOIL

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I quite like the grumpy face of Thaco on panel 1! It says "now that's done with that stupid room, let's proceed and stop wasting more time" without spelling it out.

[Traab]

Interesting new trap/maze/whatever. So far the only change seems to be the corridor getting simpler in design and the doorknobs changing sides. I wonder when the clue to how to solve this will appear.

[Fyraltari]

Interesting new trap/maze/whatever. So far the only change seems to be the corridor getting simpler in design and the doorknobs changing sides. I wonder when the clue to how to solve this will appear.

The colour on the doors will probably matter. Also, whatever magic is at work here is warping space.

[Anteros]

Not a bad update. I much prefer Goblins when it focuses on humor and light moments rather than trying to be edgy and serious.

[Willie the Duck]

It's nonsense on my part, but I noticed that two of the Goblins are only depicted in a group shot from the rear, so my mind immediately went to 'the actors were unavailable for that week of shooting, and those are stand-ins.'

[McNum]

Those door patterns made me think of something. Thaco really does make for a fine Yoshi.

[Draconi Redfir]

New comic is up! It's neato.

Spoiler: SPOIL

Show

I quite like the grumpy face of Thaco on panel 1! It says "now that's done with that stupid room, let's proceed and stop wasting more time" without spelling it out.

Spoiler

Show

it's actually the exact same pose / expression he was in when he left from the Angel's perspective, showing no time at all passed between those two comics.

[Vinyadan]

New page https://www.goblinscomic.com/comic/page-18-2021

I think it's a nice one.

[Fyraltari]

So, each corridor has one "entrance" and two "exits" one of which brings you back to the entrance of the corridor you were in and the other brings you to the entrance of the other corridor.

The way out is probably to go through the doors in a specific order, most likely to be figured out using the colors. However, Complains going through did not seemnto change the colors on any door. How does this work?